Video displays are ubiquitous features in homes, businesses, and public places, and are primarily used to provide a visual presentation generated by, for example, personal computers, electronic kiosks, video games, PDAs, cellular phones, and the like. Until relatively recently, most large video displays have been of the cathode ray tube (“CRT”) type, which employs an elongated glass vacuum tube wherein the length of the tube is proportional to the surface area of the display screen. CRT displays are typically constructed to be relatively rugged and resist impact damage, as they are constructed of thick, impact-resistant glass.
CRT displays have long been used in gaming devices, such as video poker and video slot machine type gaming consoles. Such consoles include, for example, upright and bar-top consoles, which house the gaming device's electronics, money-collection and payout mechanisms, and in which the CRT display is mounted to display graphics and text to a user. Other examples of consoles may include stand-alone, interactive, kiosk-type consoles, which may be configured to provide information or services to a user through interaction with the video display. Such gaming machines and kiosk-type consoles (collectively, “consoles”) are increasingly being installed in remote locations, such as, for example, in malls or on sidewalks, where they are not continually monitored to prevent misuse or vandalism. Such consoles are thus not uncommonly subjected to violent frontal impacts from users, such as by the user's fist or a wielded item.
Touch screen devices are also well-known and have historically been combined with CRT displays and other rugged displays in gaming devices and in interactive kiosks. Touch screen devices may eliminate or reduce the need to incorporate external buttons or sensors on the console housing to allow a user to interact with the console. External buttons and sensors have the disadvantage of having to be individually installed in a console and connected to the console's electronics, which adds steps and expense to the manufacturing process. Such buttons and sensors also have the disadvantage of being susceptible to damage from users and the environment, and thus contribute to higher failure rates of the console generally. The potential for damage to such buttons and sensors is more acute where the console is installed in a remote location where console users are not continually supervised.
Console manufacturers are increasingly incorporating flat panel displays, such as liquid crystal displays (“LCD”), plasma, field emission display (“FED”) video displays and the like, into consoles instead of CRT displays. Flat panel displays have the advantage of providing a suitable, and often superior, video display as compared to CRT displays, and have the further advantage of having a drastically reduced depth as compared with a CRT of equal screen size. Flat panel displays, however, and especially LCD screens, are damaged by contact or impact more easily than CRT displays.
Like CRT displays, consoles having flat panel displays may incorporate touch screen devices in conjunction with the flat panel display to eliminate the need to add buttons or sensors. A known method of combining a CRT and a touch screen includes attachment of a touch screen device directly to the outer viewing surface of the CRT using a permanent adhesive. The touch sensor itself, however, is not well suited to protect a flat panel display from damage, particularly from a frontal impact, as it is generally constructed of thin, flexible plastic sheet with associated electronics. Thus, force from a frontal impact is readily transmitted through the touch screen to the flat panel display, thereby allowing the flat panel display to be relatively easily damaged. Another problem with this type of assembly becomes evident in the event that the flat panel display becomes non-operational. In such a case, the entire assembly must be discarded because the touch screen and flat panel display are not easily separated without damaging the flat panel display screen.
One known method of attempting to use a touch screen in conjunction with a flat panel display while protecting the flat panel display from frontal impact employs laminating a touch screen directly onto a sheet of tempered glass, then affixing the glass and touch screen assembly to the front of the flat panel display. This method is not without problems, however. Tempered glass is expensive and must be cut to size, thereby increasing both materials and labor costs. In addition, tempered glass, while stronger than non-tempered glass, is still fragile and requires special handling during manufacture, installation, and use. And when installed, frontal impact may cause the tempered glass to shatter, and thus damage the display over which the tempered glass and touch screen were mounted. Another disadvantage to this assembly is the propensity for the touch screen to delaminate from the tempered glass, especially when the assembly is subjected to wide ranges of temperature and atmospheric conditions.
There is a demand, therefore, for a method of combining a flat panel display and a touch screen in such a manner so as to provide resilient protection to the display and while simultaneously retaining the size advantages thereof, and also permit the combined assembly to be repaired easily and relatively inexpensively. The present invention satisfies the demand.